Can a Twitter username be cybersquatting? One insurance company thinks so.

Here’s an interesting lawsuit I just discovered that attempts to stretch the bounds of the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection act.

Insurance company Conventry First has filed a federal lawsuit (pdf) against whomever is using the CoventryFirst username on Twitter, i.e. twitter.com/coventryfirst.

But in addition to complaining about plain old trademark infringement, the company has thrown in a charge of cybersquatting for using twitter.com/coventryfirst.

Now, besides the issue that Coventry First is suggesting that having a trademark in a URL directory of your web site can be cybersquatting, it seems to me that in a way they could ensnare Twitter in this battle. After all, it’s Twitter’s domain name that Conventry is considering to be a violation of the anti-cybersquatting act.

The lawsuit does not demand that the @coventryfirst username be transferred to Conventry First.

Just for kicks, I’m going to make this post’s URL include coventry-first.

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against a California man and several John Does over their registration of domain names containing the “Bing” mark. The suit lists 21 allegedly infringing domain names ranging from aolbing.com to BingPornTube.com to Bing-Search.com.

Microsoft says that over 1,500 domain names containing “bing” were registered each month in the two months following the announcement of its search engine name.

The company is asking the court to hand over the domain names, the defendants to pay legal fees and damages, as well as $100,000 in statutory damages under the Anti-Cybersquatting Protection Act.

My guess is that Davies is a small-time cybersquatter who doesn’t know what he’s doing, given that the domain names are mostly parked with GoDaddy’s “free” parking for which he doesn’t earn click-through revenue. Every time a large company announces a new product there are people who register related domain names thinking they’re going to hit pay dirt. They aren’t aware of the law.

Charity sues company that bought domain name for $55,000 in NameJet domain name auction.

Non-profit Goodwill Industries International has sued the owner of Goodwill.com for alleged trademark infringement. The lawsuit (pdf) names Cyber2Media, Inc., the owner of the domain, and Oversee.net, which briefly monetized the domain on its DomainSponsor platform, as defendants.

For years, the domain name Goodwill.com was used by Goodwill Group, Inc., a Japanese staffing company. Goodwill Industries notes that it didn’t believe Goodwill Group was using the domain in bad faith. But then Goodwill Group changed its name and let the domain name expire.

Domain name registrar Network Solutions sent the domain name to an expired domain auction earlier this month on NameJet. Goodwill Industries contacted Network Solutions to try to stop the auction from taking place, but was unsuccessful. The winning bid was $55,000. (DNJournal reports the winning bid in this week’s sales report as $55,978.)

After winning the auction, the lawsuit alleges that Cyber2Media parked the domain name with links related to charitable giving. Goodwill Industries claims this has caused severe damage since December is a busy month for charitable giving.

The domain was originally parked at DomainSponsor, but is now parked with an eNom service.

Charity sues company that bought domain name for $55,000 in NameJet domain name auction.

Non-profit Goodwill Industries International has sued the owner of Goodwill.com for alleged trademark infringement. The lawsuit (pdf) names Cyber2Media, Inc., the owner of the domain, and Oversee.net, which briefly monetized the domain on its DomainSponsor platform, as defendants.

For years, the domain name Goodwill.com was used by Goodwill Group, Inc., a Japanese staffing company. Goodwill Industries notes that it didn’t believe Goodwill Group was using the domain in bad faith. But then Goodwill Group changed its name and let the domain name expire.

Domain name registrar Network Solutions sent the domain name to an expired domain auction earlier this month on NameJet. Goodwill Industries contacted Network Solutions to try to stop the auction from taking place, but was unsuccessful. The winning bid was $55,000. (DNJournal reports the winning bid in this week’s sales report as $55,978.)

After winning the auction, the lawsuit alleges that Cyber2Media parked the domain name with links related to charitable giving. Goodwill Industries claims this has caused severe damage since December is a busy month for charitable giving.

The domain was originally parked at DomainSponsor, but is now parked with an eNom service.